I am looking into homeschooling and I do like the idea of doing it all myself but is it better to join an academy to keep the records
Is it easy to keep the records yourself?
I have a long way to go for learning but we are trying to get a grip on this curriculum thing.... any help would be great.

It's useful to join an umbrella organization that can supply some form of yearly testing, but you might as well do record-keeping yourself, since you'd end up having to do most of the work anyway. You can make things easier by getting some record-keeping software, or you can just keep a folder for each subject for each year and stuff it with homework assignments and weekly or monthly summaries of what has been covered. Then if anyone ever asks to see what your children have been doing, you can dump about 50 lbs of paper on them and laugh

Of course, if you don't feel confident about teaching a particular subject, you can look into co-op or online courses. These are generally inexpensive, and are a good way to supplement any weaker areas._________________Homeschool Articles - Events - Support Groups

I don't have much money so I don't have the luxgery of having a curriculum or someone to keep records for me. What I do has to be simple because I'm not the best at being organized. I just have a folder for each child in my filing cabinet. I keep papers that they finshi in it, reports, test and pictuures of projects they have done, or notes about something we did together. depending on your state and district you may not need very much to show what you've done, just a general idea of what the children have learned is sometimes fine._________________Phi 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Depends, I think, on the parent. If you think you can be disciplined enough to keep good records I say go for it - it'll save you money in the long run. If you're in a state that has heavy requirements, and you're worried about your own personal disorder, then I'd say - have someone else do it (or join an group to do the yearly testing like Theodore said).

I think some of the CDrom classes keep a record for you (like Switched on Schoolhouse).

Record keeping can be a pain, but very useful. My mom had spiral notebooks (one for each year) and she kept track of what we did each day, what pages (I mostly did workbook-textbook work) and then she kept a seperate excel sheet of our records (giving us a GPA for the year-to-date)._________________MINDsprinting * My Blog

My parents and I chose to go with Alpha Omega Academy. While expensive for home schooling it was much cheaper than a prive school in brick and mortar form would have been. My parents are my primary teachers but if I need help when they aren't around or they can't help me I can contact teachers for help. They are accredited and keep records and grade reports and other work. Makes it much easier to get into college and just in general. There are clubs and counselors as well.

Its a great curriculum to, you could buy it and bypass the school altogether it helps keep records and you can save 1,000+ by just buying the curriculum and doing everything yourself._________________War is God's way of teaching Americans geography. -Bierce